August 29, 2013

The Humans - Review

The Humans by Matt Haig

Blurb

“I was not Professor Andrew Martin. That is the first thing I should say. He was just a role. A disguise. Someone I needed to be in order to complete a task.”

The narrator of this tale is no ordinary human—in fact, he’s not human at all. Before he was sent away from the distant planet he calls home, precision and perfection governed his life. He lived in a utopian society where mathematics transformed a people, creating limitless knowledge and immortality.

But all of this is suddenly threatened when an earthly being opens the doorway to the same technology that the alien planet possesses. Cambridge University professor Andrew Martin cracks the Reimann Hypothesis and unknowingly puts himself and his family in grave danger when the narrator is sent to Earth to erase all evidence of the solution and kill anyone who has seen the proof. The only catch: the alien has no idea what he’s up against.

Disgusted by the excess of disease, violence, and family strife he encounters, the narrator struggles to pass undetected long enough to gain access to Andrew’s research. But in picking up the pieces of the professor’s shattered personal life, the narrator sees hope and redemption in the humans’ imperfections and begins to question the very mission that brought him there.

My Review

An Alien is sent to Earth to take the place of Andrew Martin a professor that has solved Riemann's hypothesis. It seems like no big thing to humans but to the aliens they know it is the first step in humans discovering their world and about them. The alien has to find the answer and destroy it. He knows all about humans how they have let war, disease and more ruin their lives. What he learns is there is so much more to these humans and what it is like to be one.

The author has written this book in a way that gives it a spin unlike other books you may read. The alien who is a clone for Andrew Martin is detailing you what he is going through on his search. He has to act human to find where the professor has put the answer. You get to see what we would look and act like to an alien. He has several hard times as he doesn't understand us as you see from the start he provides a few laughs as he gets to understand what we are. He learns to bond with Andrew's teenage son and wife and in a way fixes personnel problems the professor has. This book isn't the usual alien book but one that you will either love or hate. I really enjoyed it as the author has a wonderful way with words.